Monday, August 09, 2010

From Yellow to Neutral

My running mojo is still in good standing. But man oh man - I have been busy on all fronts. Thankfully, some storms have been sporadically cooling the weather. I have now been officially brainwashed, because I get excited when it is "only" 80 degrees out there. That's what happened Friday morning, so Isaac and I actually got to make good use of the stroller and walk 4 miles. Yay!

Saturday, on 5 hours of sleep and on the advice of our realtor, I repainted our living room. Chasen had a stomach bug, so I did 99.9% of it myself. From the minute I removed the first picture from the wall and started moving furniture to the minute I officially put down the paintbrush, 10.5 hours had elapsed. Painting is hard work! Up, down, up, down. I don't want to see another ladder for a while.

Bye bye personal yellow that went great with out furniture and floors.

Hello "cafe au lait" that will hopefully appeal to the home buying masses.

I knew getting up at 5:15 on Sunday morning would be difficult, but I also knew that it would be the coolest available time slot. Believe me, I tried to hit snooze, but my body would not let me. So off I went for six miles of speedwork.

After a warmup, the first mile was solidly run (i.e. no walk-run method) because I had to get to a restroom ASAP! Ha. That mile was done in 11:30. Whoo hoo! That's a full minute faster than my current dream race pace. The next mile took a nosedive. It was mostly uphill, and the solid running just doesn't work well for me in this darn heat and humidity. It was 12:50. Not zesty! At that point I remembered talking to Kevin about doing the 30:30 method for longruns. This was no longrun, but I thought it might be wise to apply that same logic somehow to my speedwork. I decided to run 1 minute and walk 30 seconds. Bingo! 11:57 and 12:03! Then, I left the somewhat shady neighborhood I was in and the sun was in full force. Yuck - so bright and hot. It really, really made a difference. After a stop in the local McDonald's for some ice cold water, I got back to it. But not until I did something I have NEVER done before -- I dumped ice cold water over my head. Yowsa! Now that was frigidly refreshing. I happily accepted the remaining 13:06 and 13:30 (where I walked tons more).

This weekend, technically, I am supposed to do 26 miles. Since I never made it to 23 miles several weeks ago, I think 23 or less would be a more appropriate goal. We shall see. It'll be in the 80's no matter when I run, so I have to factor that in. Come on, winter!

5 comments:

Suzana said...

Those yellow walls look amazing! You have great taste :)

I can't wait for winter either! snow snow snow :D

Petraruns said...

Love the walls - yes they are more boring but you've done a beautiful job. Fingers crossed that it works!

As for your running - you're doing amazingly given the conditions...

Unknown said...

Just keep going . . . I'll be rooting for you for the 23 miler this weekend! The brown is nice but definitely not as personal as the yellow. Congrats on the new house.

Newly and Forever, Tamantha said...

Hey Susan...please come on over to my blog (www.runnakedsquirrelrun.blogspot.com) and let my know how galloway is working for you...I've had alot of setbacks in the last several months and am coming back from injury, so I'm paranoid about doing too much too soon and injuring myself all over again. Does the 3 days a week work for you? How is it going running at night? Can't wait to hear about it!
Tammy

Jacky said...

Susan, great job on the walls! I loved the yellow ones, but the new color's nice too! Fingers crossed you sell the house in no time!

About training, I think you're doing great... I wanted to do my first half in the fall and I've delayed it until late winter/early spring... can't train in the heat, I really can't, so it'll just have to wait a bit more!

Good luck on that long run!